Tag: July 31, 2011

SCHOOL officials have quietly implemented what appears an Orwellian “Big Brother” program to monitor activities in classrooms, raising fears that it might curtail academic freedom on campus.

The Facilities Management Office (FMO) has installed closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in at least 10 faculties and colleges located at the Main Building, Beato Angelico Building, St. Raymund’s Building, and St. Martin de Porres Building.

The Management Association of Security and School Officials, Inc. earlier suggested that schools install CCTV cameras as a deterrent to crime.

ANOTHER Thomasian will take the helm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) with the election of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma as head of the influential group of clerics.

Palma, 61, was elected CBCP president for a two-year term during the organization’s 103rd plenary assembly last July 9.

Palma, who is vice president of CBCP, will succeed Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar, who did not seek re-election, on December 1.

The Cebu prelate’s priority is a program of “New Evangelization” over a 10-year period of preparation for the year 2021, the 500th year of Christianity in the Philippines.

THEOLOGY professors have condemned an art installation by a UST alumnus on exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, calling it “blasphemous and sacrilegious.”

The work in question, titled “Poleteismo,” is by College of Fine Arts and Design alumnus Mideo Cruz, part of the “all-Thomasian” exhibit called “Kulo.”

Cruz’s Poleteismo plays on Catholic icons and sacramentals, placed side by side or interspersed with pop culture imagery and erotica, supposedly to show the “transformation of deity.”

FOR “LACK of probable cause,” the Makati City prosecutor’s office has dismissed the libel complaint filed by the owner of the private firm operating the UST carpark against two Varsitarian staff members.

In a resolution dated July 5, assistant city prosecutor Edmund Seña cleared associate editor Rommel Marvin Rio and former editor in chief Cliff Harvey Venzon. “This office could not find malice on the part of respondents (Rio and Venzon) in so far as the subject news article is concerned,” the resolution stated.

Former senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the Varsitarian’s chief legal counsel for the case, said: “The resolution of the investigating fiscal, dismissing the libel case, boosts the free exercise of campus journalists today.”

A “CONGRESS of the Filipino Faithful” called on the Aquino administration and its allies to prioritize more than a dozen other urgent bills instead of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, with Catholic and Evangelical leaders delivering their “State of the Soul of the Nation” Address or SSONA hours before the President’s own State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Passing the RH bill—which will institute a massive, state-funded birth control program amid stiff opposition from religious group—would only divide the nation further when the country’s “robust and vibrant” population should be the “primary and ultimate resource,” said the manifesto, which was read by a succession of speakers.

EXPERTS from various fields gathered in a colloquium to share their views on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill at the Medicine Auditorium last July 22, concluding that the measure being pushed in Congress is redundant and could even be harmful.

More than a thousand Thomasians attended the forum titled “The RH Bill Colloquium: the Catholic Professionals’ Perspective.”

Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, who opened the forum, said the RH bill is unnecessary because it is “a mere duplication” of Republic Act No. 9710 or the Magna Carta for Women.

“Many [of the provisions in the RH Bill] are verbatim copies of existing laws,” Golez said.

AMADEA Elviña Medina, the UST alumna proclaimed the “oldest living Thomasian” during the Quadricentennial celebrations last January, died last July 22 of cardiac arrest on the campus where she learned some of life’s greatest lessons. She was 100.

The Thomasian centenarian, who regaled the current generation of UST students with stories of early 20th century campus life, passed away in a coronary care unit of UST Hospital before noon that Friday.

“Lola Deng” or “Tia Ading” graced the Quadricentennial Grand Celebration last January 29.

Amadea, a spinster, must have had a “taste of heaven” during the program as she was a very simple person who did not want to be in the limelight, daughter-in-law Lourdes Medina told the Varsitarian.

Sophomores at the AMV-College of Accountancy no longer have to meet a “cut-off score” to be able to major in Accountancy, but a new “retention program” is set to be implemented.

The requirement to obtain a grade of 2.75 in Accounting 2 has been abolished, but under the new retention policy, grades in Accounting 1 and 2 cannot be lower than 3.00. Students must also get a passing mark in retention exams to be retained in the Accountancy course.

Students who get a grade of 2.00 or higher in the two subjects will be exempted from the examination, while those who fail will be transferred to the Management Accounting program.

THE UST Faculty Union has asked the Office of the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs to suspend new guidelines on extra pay for faculty members handling four subjects, claiming it contradicts the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The new guidelines limit extra pay to “experimental” laboratory subjects, excluding combined lecture and laboratory courses.

Previous guidelines limited each faculty member with a full 24-unit load to three courses. An additional course load or fourth preparation merits an extra compensation depending on the faculty’s rank.

THE COLLEGE of Education has launched an English-speaking campaign following that of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, to the “shock” of most students.

The announcement came as UST ranked the lowest in the teaching of English and Literature among the top four Philippine universities in the recent survey of London-based consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

All professors, students, and support staff in the college have been requested by the Education Student Council (ESC) to communicate in English both in and out of the classroom—including during class recitations, reports, consultations, programs, and office transactions.

However, speaking in English is not required, but “encouraged,” ESC President Romel Bautista said.